And a happy 25th anniversary to Gore-Tex.
It's been a much drier world since that fateful day in 1976 when W. L. Gore & Associates realized the miracle fiber they'd developed to make electronic cables and medical implants could also be used to weatherproof everything from boots, pants, jackets, gloves, tents, space suits and you name it.
The world's first breathable and waterproof fabric was born.
In the 25 years since, Gore-Tex has protected more people and gone more places than traveler's checks. You name it, it's been there. The South Pole. The top of Everest. The moon.
And as they were saying yesterday at the Gore-Tex booth in the massive Outdoor Retailers Show going on at the Salt Palace, it just keeps getting more breathable and waterproof. There's a new Gore-Tex fabric out called Windstopper that can turn the lightest jacket into a warm coat. The end of layering may not be all that far away.
But this isn't merely a salute to one of the most comforting inventions of our time.
It's a salute to the fine educational institutions and the fine town that got W.L. "Bill" Gore started.
If it wasn't for Westminster College and the University of Utah right here in Salt Lake City, we might still be all wet.
The Gore-Tex story begins in the Depression-Era '30s when Bill Gore left his home town of Meridian, Idaho, and enrolled at Westminster College. In four years he managed to get his bachelor's degree and find his wife, Vieve, whom he first met when she was a junior at Salt Lake's East High School.
Then it was off to graduate school at the University of Utah, where Bill got his doctorate in chemical engineering. That sent Bill and Vieve off to Delaware and a fine job with DuPont, the chemical company that was on top of the world due to the recent discovery of an amazing no-stick material that could be used on pots and pans and lots of other things. Scientists called this polymer polytetrafluoroethylene. DuPont called it Teflon.
For 19 years, the Gores stuck with DuPont, but then Bill, frustrated that the company wasn't interested in some of his experiments that expanded the uses of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), struck out on his own, starting W.L. Gore & Associates on Jan. 1, 1958, in his and Vieve's basement.
The company did just fine putting PTFE to electronic and medical uses, but in 1969 the next real breakthrough came when Bill and Vieve's son, Bob, discovered that PTFE, when heated, could expand. The result was a "miracle" fabric with 9 billion pores per square inch that was both breathable and waterproof.
The Gores were so excited they covered a tent with the stuff and went camping back here in Utah and Wyoming.
One night, as the story goes, it started to hail and inside the tent the Gores suddenly found themselves floating in water.
And that is how they realized the Gore-Tex is supposed to go on the INSIDE.
Bill Gore died in 1987 but Vieve is reportedly still going strong, making daily treks to Gore headquarters in Newark, Del., to keep an eye on Bill and Bob's creations.
Well, at least part of those creations. By now, W.L. Gore & Associates produces more than 500 fabrics in 45 plants located worldwide and generates annual sales over $1.4 billion.
In the outdoor gear world, virtually everybody uses Gore-Tex, from North Face to Nike to everything in between. Even Patagonia caved in and started using Gore-Tex fabric a couple of years ago.
At the Outdoor Retailers Show, there's hardly a booth not connected in some way to Gore-Tex.
When you think about it, not a bad way to celebrate the anniversary.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.